


A Sorta Fairytale

by track_04



Category: Johnny's Entertainment, KAT-TUN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Friendship, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-06
Updated: 2010-01-06
Packaged: 2017-11-14 17:36:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/517803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/track_04/pseuds/track_04
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kame is happy with his rather normal life and his rather normal office job. Until, of course, a magical gel pen and a bit of paper change all that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Sorta Fairytale

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cuizy](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=cuizy).



> Written for 2009 JE_Holiday. Reposted from LJ.

Looking back on it, Kame thought it was safe to say that this was all Taguchi's fault.

Not directly, mind you. It wasn't that Taguchi had waved a magic wand or clicked his heels three times and made Kame's world all topsy-turvy.

No. Instead, Taguchi had, in very Taguchi-like-fashion, made a joke. It wasn't a very good joke, really, and Kame couldn't even remember the exact details or the punchline. What he did remember was the way Taguchi had walked away, chuckling to himself, and the look that he'd left behind on Kame's boss' face. While Kame couldn't remember the joke itself, he could remember the gist of it, and it had been some sort of allusion to the fact that the Romance Division--Kame's and, more importantly, Kame's manager Jun's division--was the most love-free place in the whole of Johnny's Ink.

Kame didn't really think it was a fair assessment. Sure, it wasn't as though they sat around, clasping hands and singing Kumbaya, but that really wouldn't have been appropriate (or productive, for that matter) behaviour no matter _where_ you worked. Unless maybe you worked at a summer camp for children (or perhaps adults in the middle of a mid-life crisis who were willing to pay good money to roast hot dogs and do ridiculous things that reminded them of their forgotten youths).

Either way, he didn't see what the big deal was. They all came in every day and got the work that needed to be done, done. Or, if they (they being Akanishi, mainly) didn't, then someone (someone being Kame, mostly) was there to pick up the slack. Even if they weren't sharing hugs over their morning coffee, Kame thought they were generally a pretty good team. They were thorough and efficient and they generally got along as co-workers, even if they weren't friends.

Unfortunately for Kame and the rest of Romance team, Jun didn't see things the same way. Jun was, in general, a good boss. He was demanding and a bit of a perfectionist, but he didn't ask any more of his employees than he was willing to give himself. Kame liked and respected this about him.

Jun also had a bit of a competitive streak, though, and took any sort of slander against his team and his division very, very personally.

Apparently he saw Taguchi's horrible joke (which had probably been more of an excuse to make another bad pun than any real shot at the team, if you asked Kame, which no one did) as just such a slander, because when Kame came into the office the next morning there was already an email in his inbox declaring a mandatory team building seminar for all day the following Wednesday. Kame sighed and marked it down on his calendar, making a mental note to stay late the rest of the week and try to get ahead on his work so he wouldn't be completely snowed under afterwards.

~@@@~

In general, Kame liked his job. Sure, reading through other people's writing for typos and consistency wasn't the most glamorous work, and most people considered Romance only a step above Shoujo manga in terms of artistry and credibility, but he knew for a fact that he was good at what he did and a good book was a good book, regardless of what section of the bookstore it happened to be filed under.

Kame might have occassionally dreamed of being the one writing the stories that graced someone else's desk for editing someday, but he mostly ignored these as flights of fancy. All-in-all, he was content.

Generally speaking.

The morning of the next Wednesday when he got to work and made his way to their department's little used conference room and not his desk, however, he was anything but content. Wednesdays were normally his most productive day, but this Wednesday would be spent crowded into a room with the rest of his department, sitting in uncomfortable chairs while they listened to guest speakers tell them how to be better versions of themselves. Normally he would have been in favor of professional growth, but professional growth with some of his co-workers was a little... well. The last time they’d had something like this he’d spent the better part of the day elbowing Tanaka and Akanishi everytime one or the other started to doze off.

It wasn't like they needed to be a "team" to get their work done, anyway. They all managed, and what the others couldn't manage they dumped on Kame. He was fine with that.

Their department really didn't need seminars and love-ins and some outsider to come in and force them to do trust building exercises and ice breakers.

God, ice breakers. He really hoped there weren't a lot of those.

Kame was still cursing a waste of a good workday when he pushed open the door to the conference room, only to be greeted by the 5 familiar (if a bit sleepy) faces of his co-workers. He blinked, unable to remember the last time he'd been the last one to anything at work, and frantically started scanning his mental calendar. He hadn't gotten the time wrong, had he?

"Kamenashi-kun."

Kame could feel the guilty look on his face as he turned to find Jun standing behind him, the very picture of a modern office worker in his carefully pressed, hand-tailored suit and Italian loafers. "Matsumoto-san, I--"

"Help yourself to some coffee and donuts," Jun said, one corner of his mouth quirking up a little as he glanced at his watch. "We're starting in 20 minutes."

Kame opened his mouth to ask why everyone else was already here if they still had 20 minutes--they may have, as a department, been good (or at least passable) at their jobs, but punctuality wasn't really most of his co-worker' forte-- but he was interrupted by a round of groans from around the table.

"20 minutes? You told me me were starting at 8 and I'd better be here on time _or else_."

"Did I?" Jun arched an eyebrow as he met the offender's eyes over Kame's shoulder. "Well, I'm sure it doesn't matter if you're here a little early, since you've been leaving at 3 everyday for the past week. Does it, Akanishi-kun?"

"... guess not."

"Good." The corners of Jun's mouth twitched upwards into the beginning of a smile that only Kame could see.

Kame suppressed his own smile, relieved that he hadn't been late and feeling a bit cocky that he was the only one Jun had told the correct time. Even if it was something small, it was nice to know that his boss trusted him like that, especially given that Jun wasn’t really the type to trust easily.

Kame nodded at his boss, giving him a grateful look as he moved to take the only empty seat left at the table, right next to a now-pouting Akanishi. It was almost worth it, being stuck in an uncomfortable chair when he could be editing the manuscript for the latest book in the _Harem Harlots and Dirty Wenches_ series instead, to see Akanishi look so put out.

Then again, he wasn't exactly keen on reading badly written, flowery fairy sex today. Maybe this meeting, painful as it was, wasn't such a bad thing.

He was quick to reassess this stance 20 minutes later when the speaker for the day strolled in, all brightly colored floral shorts and blinding smiles, and started passing out heart shaped pieces of paper and glitter pens with the same enthusiasm you’d see in an 8-year-old set loose in an ice cream shop with no supervision.

Jun cleared his throat and stood up, motioning to the smiling man and looking less annoyed than he generally would be if one of his employees wore shorts and flip-flops in a professional setting (and several had tried). "This is Aiba Masaki. I've asked him to lead the session for today."

There was a chorus of half-hearted "welcome"s from around the table and more than a few curious glances at the man standing before them.

"Good morning!" The man—Aiba—spoke up once he was finished handing out the slips of paper and pens, the grin he shot them all so bright it was nearly blinding. "I thought we could start today with a little ice breaker!"

Kame clutched his glitter pen a little more tightly and suppressed a groan.

~@@@~

Kame was a little shocked by just how quickly the day passed, considering just how dead set he’d been against it. Aiba's smile and laugh were infectious, and it wasn't long before Kame found himself smiling along with the other and joining in on the activities without so much as a tinge of annoyance or a thought to the work that was piled on his desk, waiting to be done. The rest of Kame's co-workers, for their part, seemed just as happy to be there, laughing and smiling and talking to each other openly and easily, as if something about Aiba broke down the professional walls that usually stood between them.

Kame was amazed to find himself thinking that having things like this at work all the time wouldn't be half bad. He hadn't hated things before but this... this was nice. Akanishi was even smiling at him, something he couldn't remember the other doing since they were both in high school, back before they'd grown up and apart.

Yeah, maybe today wasn't a waste afterall.

~@@@~

"Kame!"

Kame was still feeling the after affects of the day spent around Aiba to really care when he turned to find that the other man, someone who was virtually a stranger, had been the one calling out to him so informally. What normally would have caused an annoyed frown instead lead to him stopping to wait for the other man, his face reflecting Aiba's smile back at him. "Yes?"

"Let's go out for dinner. There's a great Yakiniku place near here that I want to try."

"Uh--" Kame started, opening his mouth to protest that, while Aiba was nice, he really didn't go out to eat with strangers, and even if he did he'd wanted to sort through some of the work waiting on his desk before he headed home. That's what he'd meant to say, at least, but what ended up coming out instead was, "Yakiniku? Sure."

As Aiba slung an arm over Kame's shoulders and lead him toward the elevator, Kame felt the same happy sense of relaxation wash over him that he'd been feeling all day. One night off wouldn't really hurt anything, would it? His work would still be there in the morning. He could just make a point to show up early.

Besides, he usually had a good sense about people, and that sense was telling him Aiba was someone he could trust.

~@@@~

When Kame woke up the next morning with a headache the size of Hokkaido and a mouth that tasted of stale beer and vomit, he thought maybe it was time to reconsider that trust that he had in his sense about people.

Trustworthy people didn't end up talking you into half a dozen beers and Karaoke until 3 am on a work night, despite your (albeit feeble) protests. A night out with a trustworthy people also didn’t, as a general rule, lead to a naked stranger in your bed, much like the one that was blinking sleepily at Kame from across his pillow right now.

Kame blinked back, his brain taking a moment to process this last fact. When it did, Kame did what any self-respecting man would do: he sat up and shrieked like a girl, clutching the covers to his chest. "Who are you?"

The other man blinked, his face thoughtful as he stared at Kame as if the other wasn't, in fact, eyeing him like he might pull out a knife and cut him into tiny bits at any moment. "Pi."

"... your name is Pi?"

The other man nodded, smiling slightly, as if this was a perfectly acceptable answer. Which it was _not_. Kame did not bring home (very attractive, his mind chimed in again) strangers after a bender with a practical stranger (who was seeming less and less trustworthy _by the minute_ ), and even if he did bring someone home sans-alcohol, he did not sleep with anyone named Pi. Pi was what an 8 year old girl named their dog. It was not the name of a full-grown (hot) man.

"Is that your street name?" Kame managed, too busy running through the list of STDs he probably had now to be embarrassed by just how high-pitched and irrational his voice sounded at the moment.

"Street name?" The stranger sat up then, running a hand through his sleep mussed hair calmly, as if he hadn't woken up in bed with a complete stranger.

"Yeah, are you," Kame started, doing his best to ignore the way the sheets where slipping down the other's hip and revealing an almost obscene amount of skin. "...you know."

The man-- Pi, if he was to be believed--just blinked and stared at him blankly.

"Are you a... _person of ill repute_?" Kame winced a little at his wording and made a mental note to read something that wasn't for work soon, before he started calling people harlots and rakes or asking about heaving bossoms in normal conversation.

"I don't think so."

Kame sighed, relieved to see the guileless way the other was looking at him. At least he hadn't wound up waking up next to a prostitute. Not that it was much better waking up next to a naked stranger in any context, but at least this way he wouldn't have to burn his bedsheets. "So, you're not a street person and you're name is... Pi. Just Pi."

"I think there's more to it," the man added, that thoughtful look reappearing. "Maybe."

Kame nodded and tried not to look as worried as he felt as he eyed the other. This would be much easier if he could remember more of what had happened after that fifth beer. He really hoped that Aiba hadn't drugged this guy and sent him home with Kame as some sort of elaborate joke. He didn't really seem like the type but... well, you could never tell.

"Aiba," Pi repeated, and Kame jumped a little, realizing that he must have said that last part aloud.

"Uh, yeah. He's just a guy I was out with last night--"

"You know Aiba. This all makes much more sense now." Pi said, his face splitting into a grin.

"... wait, you know him?"

"Yeah, we go way back. He must have asked me to come. I should have realized, really--"

"So _Aiba_ is why you're here?"

Pi nodded, still half-grinning and looking much more relaxed. He leaned back against the pillows and sighed while Kame, once again, fought the urge to stare.If he hadn't still been freaked about waking up with a naked stranger, he might have been a little sad that he didn't remember _how_ the other had gotten naked.

"So, uh, can I call you a cab or something, then?"

"A cab?"

"There's a subway station near here, but a it’s a bit of a walk, so it’s usually best to just take a cab. Don't worry about the cost. I can give you some money for fare--"

"But why would I need one of those?"

"A cab? So you can go home...?"

Pi blinked, giving Kame that guileless look that Kame was quickly coming to hate in all its cuteness. "But I am home."

"Uh... no, this is my apartment."

Pi nodded, speaking slowly as he continued. Kame wasn't sure if the other was being condescending or just thinking over his words carefully. "And mine, too. Aiba called me here."

"I... think I'm going to go call Aiba," Kame mumbled, deciding that it was probably easier to call Aiba who, even if he was not longer trustworthy, he knew wasn’t a crazy person. Or so he hoped, anyway. If not, there was always the police.

Kame’s cheeks pink as he slid out of bed (grateful to find that his pants were still on, both because he didn’t relish the idea of walking around naked in front of a stranger and because this probably meant that sex with Pi had not happened—unless, of course, the other had dressed him afterwards, but that seemed a bit ridiculous even in the middle of a scenario like this) and padded towards the door. His headache made a point to remind him that it was still there, and Kame really hoped that he'd thought to get Aiba's number at some point last night.

"Tell him I said hi," Pi called out behind him, as if everything was perfectly normal and he woke up in strange men's beds everyday. Then again, he might have. Who knew.

~@@@~

An hour and three progressively frantic phone messages later, Aiba was walking through Kame's front door, wearing the same floral patterned shorts that he had the day before and smiling like nothing at all could possibly be wrong with the world. "Good morning!"

Kame was surprised that his voice was actually almost calm when he spoke, considering the sudden, overwhelming urge that he had to strange the other man. "There is a strange naked man in my bed who says he knows you and I don't really remembered how he got there and I would really appreciate it if you could maybe explain this--"

"Oh, Pi’s here already? That was faster than I expected," Aiba answered as he slipped off his shoes and slipped past Kame towards the kitchen. "Did you have breakfast yet?"

"No, I don't usually eat br--," Kame started to answer then stopped, shaking his head as that strange feeling of contentment that he'd felt all day the day before washed over him as Aiba brushed past. "Wait, who cares about breakfast? There is a naked man _in my bed_."

"Not in your bed anymore," Aiba called out from the kitchen, just in time for Kame to turn and spot Pi standing in the doorway, Kame's sheets clutched around his waist.

"We're having breakfast?"

"We're having pancakes!" Aiba's voice answered before Kame had the chance. Pi smiled and made his way towards the kitchen at that, muttering something that sounded like "maple syrup" under his breath as he passed.

Kame sighed and followed him into the kitchen, where Aiba was busy digging through his cabinets as if he was used to coming into strangers apartments and making them breakfast after they’d woken up with strange, naked men in their bed. "Shouldn't we talk first?" he protested weakly as Aiba sat a bottle of maple syrup that Kame couldn't remember buying down on the counter.

"You should never hear big news on an empty stomach." Aiba smiled and motioned him towards a chair. "Trust me."

Kame opened his mouth to object again, but decided it probably wasn’t worth it. He was reasonably certain that Aiba wasn’t crazy (or totally crazy, at least) and that if he did as the other asked he would get the truth out of him eventually. Also, he reasoned as he took a seat at the table across from Pi reluctantly, at least he was going to end up getting pancakes out of this.

~@@@~

Kame blinked, staring down at the seemingly blank slip of heart-shaped paper clutched in his hand, his brows drawn together as he tried to process the last 10 minutes of explanation. Aiba was right--this wasn't the kind of news that you wanted on an empty stomach. It wasn't, honestly, the kind of news that you wanted ever.

Slowly, feeling oddly calm, Kame folded up the slip of paper and slid is across the table top back to Aiba. There was a long, thoughtful moment of silence as he mulled it all over, choosing his words carefully. "So, let me see if I’ve got this straight. You're my fairy godmother."

A nod from Aiba and a slight smile, accompanied by the sound of Pi's fork against his plate as he finished off yet another pancake, seemingly too wrapped up in the maple-flavored goodness to pay either of them or this conversation any mind.

"And this." He tapped the piece of paper and met Aiba's eyes. "Is a wish that you got me to write down last night while I was drunk with your magical gel pen."

Another nod and a brighter grin this time.

"And he—“ Kame pointed a finger at Pi, who stopped eating long enough to smile around a bite of pancake at them. "—is here because of that wish?"

Aiba nodded yet again, his grin nearly blinding.

Kame frowned, wondering how something so crazy could make actually kind of make sense to him. Things like fairy godmothers and magical gel pens and naked princes (not that anyone had said Pi was a prince, but that was usually how these things went, right?) who just appeared in your bed did not exist.

They didn’t exist and yet… now that Aiba had told him and he’d repeated the story for himself, it kind of made an odd sort of sense.

Magic would explain how Aiba had managed to get Jun to laugh yesterday, at least.

Despite the ridiculousness of it all, Kame found himself actually believing it. "So, if you waved your magical wand and just made him appear--"

"Pen," Aiba corrected, his face oddly serious. "Wands haven't really been used since the 16th century. Too imprecise. One minute you're waving it around, trying to get your charge to the ball, the next minute you have a coach that's full of pumpkin seed and a pair of horses with a distinct fondness for cheese."

"Uh... right," Kame mumbled, deciding it was probably best not to think too much about that one. "So, if you made him appear, then why is he naked?"

"Oh, that. I'm not sure, really." Aiba turned and gave Pi a thoughtful look. "It was your wish, afterall."

"My wish," Kame repeated, shoulders slumping a little as he wondered how even that somehow managed to make sense. "Any chance I can borrow your pen again?"

~@@@~

When Kame woke up the next morning to an empty bed he thought for one brief, blessed moment that the previous day and all that business about fairy godmothers and wishes and naked, attractive men in his bed had been a dream. He smiled to himself as he burrowed back into his pillow for a few minutes extra sleep, laughing silently at the ridiculousness of his subconscious.

He was still laughing as he drifted back into a half-sleep and continued laughing right up to the moment that the smell of pancakes reached his nose and he heard soft, off-key singing from his kitchen.

He sat up, then, groaning as he spotted the familiar-looking, heart shaped piece of paper that Aiba had left with him the day before resting on his nightstand.

"... shit."

~@@@~

As far a magical naked guys who just appeared in your bed went, Kame guessed Pi wasn't so bad. The other had fixed him breakfast and was driving him to work (Kame hadn't asked where he'd gotten the car, but was content assuming it involved some sort of magic as well), and he actually looked quite normal when he was clothed and not sitting in Kame's kitchen wrapped in a sheet.

It still didn't make any of it any less weird, but Kame was willing to take what he could get at this point. By the time they pulled up in front of the building that housed Johnny's Ink, Kame had almost convinced himself that having a house guest for awhile until he could figure things wouldn't be so bad.

Until, of course, Jin had to go and ruin it all.

"Kamenashi?"

Kame was just shutting the car door when he heard that all too familiar voice behind him and winced instinctively, wondering for a frantic moment if he was really that late or if Jin was actually early. A quick glance at his watch confirmed that it was neither--they were both, oddly enough, right on time, something that Kame didn't think had happened ever in the entire 3 years that they'd been working here together.

"You're actually late to work?" Jin laughed that annoyingly attractive laugh of his and peered at Kame over the top of his sunglasses. "So when can we expect the world to end?"

"I'm not late," Kame shot back, his hand tightening around his briefcase as he ignored that irritating flutter he got in his stomach everytime Jin was around him like this. "I'm on time. And so are you." He turned to make his way into the building then, almost making it inside before Jin caught up with him and fell into step beside him, his body irritatingly close as they made their way towards the elevators.

"So, what's the deal? I didn't think you were ever just on time."

Kame punched the button for the elevator and shrugged, fighting the urge to roll his eyes when Jin pulled off his sunglasses in one fluid motion and threw him a wink. "I just decided to take my time this morning."

"Hot date?"

"What? No," Kame's back stiffened, his voice a bit too defensive.

"Come on, you can tell me," Jin pried, his voice taking on that soft whine that Kame both hated and loved as the elevator doors closed behind them, for all intents and purposes trapping them together. Or maybe Kame was just reading too much into things. "You call in sick for the first time _ever_ yesterday, and then you show up here right before work starts and say you decided to “just take your time” this morning? You, the guy whose mom used to have to force him to pencil in down time to his schedule in high school. Sounds like someone got some ass to me."

"I did _not_ ," Kame cut in, his voice a bit more defensive than he would have liked, "get any ass."

"Oh yeah? Then who was the guy that dropped you off today?"

"I--he," Kame swallowed, leaning back as Jin leaned in, the patented Akanishi I-told-you-so look written all over his face. "He’s my cousin."

Kame felt a strange sense of satisfaction at the way Jin's expression faltered for a moment. "Your cousin?"

"Yeah, my cousin. He's visiting Tokyo and I'm letting him stay at my place."

"Really? So, what's his name?"

"Pi," Kame answered before he could think better of it.

"Pi?"

"I mean-- that's his nickname, obviously."

"On the street, maybe," Jin commented under his breath before he continued. "So, what's his real name, then?"

"It's, uh... Yamashita," Kame answered, using the first name that popped into his head, which just so happened to be the author of a book about a tragic love affair between two Portugese sailors that Jin had dumped off on him to finish editing at the last minute. Luckily Jin never bothered to pay attention to that type of thing.

"Yamashita...?"

"Tomohisa," he finished, this time choosing the name of his oldest brother’s best friend from middle school.

"Yamashita Tomohisa," Jin repeated, his face thoughtful for a moment while Kame held his breath and prayed that the other would just believe him. "So, is he single?"

Kame sighed and gave Jin A Look as the elevator doors opened and he stepped off without bothering to dignify that with an answer.

~@@@~

Two weeks later, sitting on the couch watching bad variety program while Pi moved around the kitchen, humming a song that Kame thought he'd heard on the radio before but he couldn't quite place, Kame had decided that even if the circumstances were weird, he really didn't mind having Pi around all the much. The other cooked his breakfast every morning and had dinner waiting when he got home every night, and even did his laundry and cleaned his apartment while Kame was away at work. His carpetting had been vacuumed more since Pi had shown up than it had the entire three years prior.

They didn't really talk a lot, but Kame found that he enjoyed the nights spent curled up on the couch, watching mindless variety shows with Pi. For all its normalness, it actually gave Kame something to look forward to. It was nice coming home and knowing that someone was going to be there waiting for him.

Even if Pi never showed anything more than a friendly sort of interest in him, it made even the worst day at work bearable. He knew that this wasn’t generally the way things when in these type of magical prince (or whatever Pi was) situations, but he thought he rather preferred the friendship. Besides, he wasn’t exactly a damsel in distress in need of saving.

Kame was actually starting to think that maybe this magic business knew what it was doing. Even if he still had no idea what he'd wished for (and Aiba still wouldn't tell him, because apparently magical pens wrote with ink that was invisible to the mere mortal eye and "If he told him it wouldn't come true"), he was starting to actually believe that, whatever it was, maybe Pi really was the answer.

~@@@~

As with anything enjoyable in Kame's life, the contentment he felt having Pi around was thoroughly ruined by one Akanishi Jin.

Jin, being Jin, couldn't leave well enough alone and had made a point to pester Kame about "that hot cousin” of his every chance he got. Kame, for the most part, ignored it like he did most of the things that Jin did. Jin, of course, was having none of this, which was what lead to the morning when Pi pulled up to drop Kame off at work, only for them to find Jin already there, waiting, a half-smoked cigarette dangling between his fingers as he stalked up to the car with a predatory smile.

Jin was already knocking on the driver side window before Kame had a chance to notice him and intervene and by time he did, Jin was leaning in as Pi rolled it down, that look that he got on his face when he was chatting up the hot girl in the short skirts from the mail room. The conversation was over and Pi was already pulling away before Kame had so much as a chance to protest.

It managed to prove yet again that Jin could be efficient when he put his mind to it (and it involved something other than work).

And that was how Jin had, somehow, ended up with an invitation to dinner at _Kame's_ apartment. A dinner where Jin and Pi somehow managed to bond over talk of video games and swimsuit models, bonding which had, ultimately, lead to Jin coming over again and again, until Kame was pretty sure his couch now had a permanent Jin-shaped ass print in one of its cushions.

Kame frowned to himself as he stomped up the steps to his apartment, wondering why Jin had to ruin his new found sense of contentment and the one thing that had been _his_. He'd thought, at least, that when Jin had stopped talking to him after he'd gone to America on that study abroad program after high school and had suddenly been too good for Kame and all of his old friends, that he'd at least be free of Jin always stealing the spotlight and ruining everything that was his.

Apparently he’d been wrong.

Kame had managed to work his frown up to a scowl by the time he fumbled the key into his front door and pushed it open, kicking his shoes off into a messy heap in the entryway as the sound of Jin's annoying voice greeted him. He gave Jin's shoes a kick as he passed them and felt marginally better.

"You _cheated_."

"No I didn't."

"You _did_! You can't just sit there and push a bunch of buttons. It's not fair."

"Of course I can. I just did.”

"And you _cheated_. The only way you can beat Chun Li with Blanka is if you cheat."

"I still won. Five times. In a row."

"Whatever. Cheater."

"Oh, hey Kame."

Kame had nearly managed to sneak past the living room and into his bedroom, where he planned to change out of his wrinkled work clothes and spend the evening wallowing in his bad mood, when Pi spotted him. He stopped and turned to greet the other, forcing some of the grumpiness off his face. "Hey."

"I saved you some dinner." Pi smiled at him, that little awkward half-smile that Kame loved, and Kame's bad mood probably would have disappeared right then if Akanishi hadn't been sitting on the other end of the couch, smirking at him.

"So should we just set up a cot for you at work now, Kamenashi? You're practically living there."

"I had to stay late to finish the work that you dumped on me," Kame snapped, his words coming out a bit harsher than he'd intended.

"Wait... you were seriously there until 9 working on something of mine?"

"Yes, I'm there until 9 a lot of nights working on _something of yours_ , actually."

"Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously." Kame could feel himself growing even more annoyed by the irritation he could hear in his own voice. "What do you want, proof?"

"No," Jin shook his head, surprising Kame by actually looking guilty.

"Good," Kame mumbled, feeling a little let down by the lack of argument from the other and deflating a little in response. He sighed and turned then, starting towards the kitchen with a quickly muttered excuse about wanting dinner. By the time he'd heated up and eaten what he could of the leftovers, Pi was waiting for him on the couch alone, and Jin's shoes were missing from the entryway.

~@@@~

8 days later, Kame's apartment was still blissfully Jin free and Jin hadn't, miracle of miracles, asked Kame to help him out with so much as a memo.

On the one hand, Kame was thrilled with actually being able to leave work when it was still light out and at having his quiet nights watching TV with Pi back. On the other, he wasn't quite sure what to do with himself. Sure, it was great not killing himself at work and not having to share his apartment or his time with Pi, but he couldn't help but feel oddly... guilty.

It wasn't that Pi ever complained or acted anything other than content, really, and it wasn't that Kame doubted that the other _was_ content, really. It was just that Pi didn't seem to laugh quite as much when Jin wasn't around. He wasn't loud around Kame like he was around Jin, arguing about video games or some stupid afternoon TV show. It wasn't that Pi made Kame feel bad about it or anything. It was just that Kame was starting to suspect that maybe, just maybe, what Pi was for him, Jin was for Pi.

And, if Kame was honest with himself, he had to admit that he maybe missed having Jin around a little bit, too.

It seemed crazy, to miss Jin’s annoying presence, but it really wasn’t any weirder than, say, having a naked man appear in your bed because your fairy godmother had put him there.

And those might have been the reason why on that 8th Jin-free day when Kame went to grab his early afternoon cup of coffee from the breakroom and found Jin there filling his own mug, that he didn't turn and slink back to his desk to wait it out until the other was done. Instead, he exchanged the required polite hellos with the other and stood to the side to wait while Jin finished.

"Here." Jin surprised him by motioning with the coffee pot, waiting patiently until it finally dawned on Kame what the other was asking and he held out his mug. He watched in silence as Jin filled it, feeling that familiar, nagging bit of guilt that had been plaguing him for the past week.

"Thanks."

"Welcome," Jin mumbled as he replaced the pot, his voice oddly soft. It was weird, almost, seeing Jin this cowed. Even back when they'd been friends, Jin had always been a bit loud and boastful. This even included those occasional moments Jin had of being incredibly thoughtful and sweet, the kind of moments that made Kame just a tiny bit sad and nostalgic when he thought back on them now.

"Hey, Kame--"

"Yeah?"

"About all that work," Jin started, not quite meeting Kame's eyes as he spoke. "Sorry. I didn't think--I wouldn't haven given it to you if I'd known. You're the best worker here, so I guess I just thought you could handle it."

Kame nodded, almost relieved at the very Jin-ness of the apology. He always had been bad at saying he was sorry. But, then again, so was Kame. "Thanks."

"Yeah, uh, welcome," Jin mumbled, opening his mouth as if he had something else he wanted to say, then closing it, only to open it again a few moment later. "Back to work then, I guess."

"Yeah," Kame agreed, managing a weak smile as Jin turned toward the door. "Hey... Jin?"

Jin stopped and turned, giving Kame a questioning look.

"If you don't have any plans after work, maybe you could come over for dinner?" Jin's smile then was enough of an answer, and Kame ignored that familiar fluttery feeling in his chest as he turned back to his coffee. "Pi misses you, I think."

That night when he found himself standing in the hallway after dinner, staring down at Jin's shoes in the doorway, he knew that Pi wasn't the only one who'd missed having the idiot around.

~@@@~

And so, slowly, Jin became a fixture in their household, and one that Kame actually found himself welcoming. Before Kame knew it, two more months had passed like that, days spent at work and nights spent eating dinner and watching variety shows, or pretending to read a book while he tried not to laugh at Pi and Jin bickering over video games in the middle of the living room floor. Jin was still a bit of a jerk sometimes and Kame still had moments where he got frustrated and took things too personally.

Kame and Jin still bickered sometimes, of course, and things were far from perfect, but Kame found that he was actually happy with the way things were. He'd even stopped looking at the empty, heartshaped piece of paper on his nightstand every night before bed, wondering what the hell it said.

This, of course, meant that he was completely unprepared when he got to work one morning to find Aiba sitting atop his desk waiting for him, wearing those same ridiculous shorts and that same infectious smile.

"Morning, Kame!"

"Morning," Kame answered automatically, a sudden, inexplicable knot settling in the pit of his stomach. "I didn't expect you."

"Of course not. Part of the job. No one expects their fairy godmother!" Aiba grinned, giggling softly at his own joke.

"Guess so." Kame managed a half smile as he sat his briefcase to the side, the knot in his stomach growing. "I hope you're not planning on taking me out drinking again. Pi's great, but I don't think my apartment can really fit another person."

"About that," Aiba began, clearing his throat as he slid down off the desk. "Pi has to go back now."

"Back?"

"Where he came from," Aiba elaborated, his expression sheepish. "Really, he shouldn't have been with you this long. I was planning on three weeks tops, but, well, your case has been a lot tougher than I thought it would be..."

"But... what about my wish?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. We’ve gone over the time limit, technically, but I've applied for an extension. You know how it is, though, with all the paperwork and red tape--"

"Time limit?" Kame asked, wondering if this really made as little sense as he was able to make of it at the moment, or if he was just too busy trying not to think about the fact that Pi was going to _leave_ for it to make any.

"Oh, yes. I keep forgetting you're human." Aiba gave Kame another sheepish look. "You know how Cinderella had to be home from the ball by midnight, or her coach turned into a pumpkin?"

"Yeah."

"Well, ignoring the gross inaccuracies in that story, it's sort of like that. Wishes all have time limits. Some sort of policy they started a few hundred years ago in an effort to enhance productivity." Aiba sighed and looked around, his voice dropping to barely a whisper as he leaned in and continued in a stage whisper. "Personally, I think it's crap, but those are the rules. Anyway, no need to worry. I applied for a time extension, so once the paper work goes through we can get back on your wish."

"And what about Pi? He just disappears?"

"More or less," Aiba answered, seeming to miss the look on Kame's face as he clapped him on the shoulder and beamed at him. "No need to worry, though. I have a friend in processing who can push this one through. It should be six months, tops."

Kame opened his mouth to protest that, no, that was _not all right_ , but before he'd had the chance for so much as a syllable, Aiba had disappeared in a puff of smoke.

~@@@~

Kame expected Pi to be gone when he got home that evening and had spent the entire day psyching himself up for the fact that his apartment would most likely be empty when he got home.

That didn't make it any easier when he managed to forget all this for the five seconds that it took him to call out "I'm home" as he slipped off his shoes and got nothing but silence in answer, though.

~~@@@~

Kame had been avoiding Jin since Pi had disappeared. It was stupid, really, considering he really wouldn't have minded the company at the moment, but part of him had sort of been hoping that he'd wake up one morning and Pi would be there in the kitchen, fixing pancakes and humming another song that Kame couldn't quite place. It was irrational, he knew, but if Jin didn't know then it couldn't be real.

So, he did everything he could to bury himself in work and avoided Jin and his not-so-subtle inquiries about his dinner plans as best he could. He managed it for an entire work week before Jin got tired of it and cornered him at his desk early Monday morning.

"So, what did I do?"

"Excuse me?" Kame kept his eyes fixed on the papers in his lap, hoping that if he looked busy enough Jin would take the hint and go away.

"What did I do to piss you off?"

"What?" Kame looked up then, caught off guard by the other's question. "What makes you think I'm mad at you?"

"Everytime I try to talk to you, you pretend like you’re busy. When you're not pretending you’re busy, you do everything possible to avoid me, and when I make any mention of dinner or Pi or your apartment you change the subject." Jin ticked the points off on his fingers, his frown deepening with each. "So, either you're mad at me or Pi is, and since you're the one with the track record here I'm going to assume it's you."

"I'm not mad at you, Jin."

"Well, I highly doubt Pi is mad at me, so please just tell me what I did so I can apologize and we can get on with it. I bought the new Super Mario last week and I've had no one to play it with and I've had to resort to eating take out from that awful Korean barbeque near my apartment."

"You didn't do anything--"

"Come on, Kame, just tell me." Jin sounded about a step away from stamping his foot in frustration. "Before I start trying to cook for myself."

"You didn't do anything," Kame repeated, holding up his hand when it looked like Jin was ready to protest again. "Pi's not here anymore, okay? He went... home."

"Home?"

"Yeah, home."

"Just like that? No goodbye or anything?" Jin mumbled, something oddly hopeful about his voice, like Kame was going to bust out laughing any minute and tell him it was all a joke.

"Yeah, just like that," Kame mumbled, turning his attention back to his papers and ignoring the dual pangs he felt in his chest, chalking them both up to missing Pi. "And I don't know when he'll be back, so you'll have to find somewhere else to eat."

Kame felt an odd sort of disappointment when Jin left then without so much another word.

~~@@@~

And that was how Taguchi completely ruined Kame's life with his stupid, thoughtless, off hand joke. Because even if nothing about Kame's life after Pi left was really that different than it had been before, it was that in-between time, when Pi had been there, that had changed everything.

Kame went back to his boring, mundane life that began and ended each day in an empty apartment. He started spending more and more time at work again, and he found himself scowling anytime anyone so much as mentioned the words "fairy" or "godmother" (which, luckily for them, they really didn't do often). He started eating sandwiches from the vending machine at work and cheap bentos from the convenience store near his apartment, the whole while thinking that none of it had tasted quite this awful before Pi’s cooking had spoiled him.

Overall, he was miserable.

And, if it had been up to Kame, that is probably where the story would have ended. Luckily for Kame (and his co-workers, who were getting quite tired of his crankiness), though, this wasn't just Kame's story. It was Jin's story, too.

It had just taken awhile for everyone, including Jin, to figure that out.

~~@@@~

"Hey, Kamenashi, you're late."

Kame froze as he spotted Jin leaning against the wall in front of his door, trying his best to look casual despite the fact that he was practically shivering from the cold.

"Well?" Jin started after a full minute of Kame staring at him in dumb silence. "Are you going to unlock your door and invite me in or not?"

"Have you been waiting out here since you got off work?"

"No. I went and got take out first," Jin answered, shivering slightly as he held up a plastic bag with a logo that Kame recognized as belonging to the Chinese place down the street. "It might be a little cold, though."

"Why?"

"Food gets cold when you stand outside in the middle of winter--"

"No. I mean, why did you bother waiting?"

"Oh." Jin smiled sheepishly. "I'm getting really sick of the takeout place by my house and I thought since all I’ve seen you eat lately are those nasty vending machine sandwiches and expired bentos—“

“They’re not expired, Jin.”

“Yeah, whatever. Expired or not, they’re gross. So, I thought you could use something that tasted decent for once.” Jin shrugged and Kame wasn’t sure if the pink in Jin’s cheeks then was from the cold or something else. “Besides, I maybe kind of missed you."

"You missed me?" Kame repeated, that old, familiar flutter making an appearance with the words.

"And I thought if I was going to find anyone that I could beat at the new Super Mario Brothers game it would be you,” Jin finished with a lopsided smile.

The grin that broke out on Kame's face in answer was so wide it almost hurt. "I missed you, too."

"Yeah, I know." Jin laughed and motioned toward the front door. "Now will you let me inside before I turn into a popsicle?"

~~@@@~

If Kame was honest with himself, which he tried very hard to be these days, he had to admit that life wasn't so bad with Jin around. Jin was still an idiot and Kame still missed having Pi around (and Jin missed Pi's cooking, as he pointed out everytime they had to eat another convenience store bento after yet another failed cooking attempt), but Kame actually found himself feeling rather content with life in general.

And just when he'd gotten used to the way things were, that was when Aiba decided to pop into his life yet again. This time it came in the form of a knock on Kame’s door one night in the middle of dinner and, when Kame answered it, he found Aiba grinning at him from the landing.

"I hope you haven't eaten. We brought dinner!"

"We?" Kame asked, noting that Aiba was still wearing those same ugly floral shorts and his beat up flip flops.

“We,” Aiba repeated, grinning at Kame as he motioned behind himself and pushed past Kame into the apartment.

“Pi?”

Pi grinned and gave Kame a little wave as he followed Aiba inside, slipping his shoes off and tucking them away in the usual spot like he hadn't ever been gone.

"Pi made your favorite," Aiba spoke before Kame had a chance, not seeming to notice the way that Kame was staring at the both of them in disbelief. "So I thought we should share. Jin hasn't gone home yet, has he?"

"No," Kame answered, too stunned to manage much else. Luckily he didn't have to, since Aiba was managing the talking end of things (although Kame really couldn’t be bothered to actually listen to any of what the other was saying) while Pi handled closing the front door and steering Kame back into the living room.

"Kame, who was at the-- Pi?" Jin dropped his game controller as Pi and Kame made their way into the living room, practically launching himself off the couch to give Pi what he would later insist was an _extremely manly_ hug.

"Hey, Jin."

"Hey? Three months and all I get is a 'hey'?" Jin laughed, pulling back and surprising them all as he slung an arm around Kame's shoulders, pulling him into the hug briefly before he let them both go. "Why the hell didn't you tell me Pi was coming back to town? You made it sound like he was never coming back."

"I didn't think he was."

"Of course I was coming back." Pi laughed softly along with Jin. "I just had to find a place to stay first."

"But you had a place to stay here with Kame."

Pi shrugged, grinning as Aiba caught them all off guard by popping in from the kitchen, plates in hand and corrected, "He had his own place here with _me_ , but we had to find a new place. Mine didn’t really have room for two people.”

"With you?"

"Of course," Aiba said as he sat the plates down on Kame's coffee table with a flourish. "Where else did you think he would go?"

"I thought he'd just--I don't know," Kame admitted.

"Disappear?" Aiba laughed at that, eyes twinkling as they met Kame's.

"Maybe," Kame admitted, his voice sheepish.

"People don't just disappear, Kame," Jin snorted.

"He's right," Aiba answered, handing Pi a plate as the other took a seat beside him. "Making someone disappear is entirely too much paperwork. Speaking of which--" Aiba paused, mischief shining in his eyes as they met Kame's. "That paperwork that we talked about earlier—I don't think you need to worry about it. Things seem to have resolved themselves."

Kame turned his head to glance at Jin, eyes lingering for a moment before he turned back to Aiba with a slight, knowing smile. "I guess they have."

Jin gave him a questioning look, but Kame just smiled and urged him to take a seat while Pi started to spoon out food onto their plates.

And then, well… they all lived happily ever after.

More or less, anyway.


End file.
